The Boeing-developed Loyal Wingman unmanned aircraft program has achieved two key production milestones.

Designed and manufactured in Australia for the RAAF under the Air Force Minor Program DEF 6014 Phase 1, the first of three aircraft has achieved the milestones of weight-on-wheels, and power-on.

“We’re continuing at pace toward our goal of flying later this year, so that we can show our customer and the world what unmanned capability like this can do,” Boeing’s program director of the Airpower Teaming System (ATS), Dr Shane Arnott said in a May 9 statement. “The strong contributions from our industry team are powering our progress.”

The ATS was unveiled at the 2019 Avalon Airshow, and the concept of operating an unmanned system in conjunction with manned combat and high value asset systems by Boeing has been proven using sub-scale systems and extensive modelling.